AMcD

I am planning to upgrade my reliable, but now ageing, QHY8 to a CMOS camera. It will be used with my 6” TS152 achromatic refractor and 2.5” field flattener. Should the fact that I will be using it on an achromat influence my decision when choosing between a colour or mono CMOS camera? Many thanks, AMcD

Many thanks Martin, that means a lot, especially coming from you.

Thank you very much. The data was collected over 7 nights, dodging the clouds from late October into November. I have been curious to see what can be done with twenty four hours of data. Whilst there is a law of diminishing returns, I think it enables me to get more out of my aging CCD. It certainly makes processing an easier task.

Many thanks for your kind words - I am very pleased with the result.

This is the final version of my image of the Elephant's Trunk Nebula in IC1396, comprising 24 hours of 300sec integrations. Taken using a QHY8 OSC with an Optolong L-Extreme filter on a TS152 achromatic refractor mounted on a Losmandy G11 under Bortle 5 skies. Acquired using SGPro and PHD2. Integrations stacked using DSS and then processed with Photoshop and StarNet++.

Beautiful craftsmanship and a really inspiring build. Enjoy!😃

I have added further data to my image of the Elephant's Trunk Nebula in IC1396. This now represents a total of 15.5hours of 300 sec integrations taken with a QHY8 OSC with an Optoplong L-Extreme filter using a TS152 achromatic refractor mounted on a Losmandy G11 from Bortle 5 skies. Acquired using SGPro and PHD2, stacked in DSS and processed in PS. The stars need more work and I had hoped to get the data acquisition to 24 hours but lost 8 hours of data to icing on the QHY8 when the overnight drop in temperature eventually overwhelmed the dew heater that keeps the ice at bay 😧

I used broadly the method set out in the video posted above on my C8 (now sold) with very good results.

This is work in progress on the Elephant's Trunk Nebula in IC1396, comprising 5 hours of 300 sec subframes taken last night using a QHY8 OSC with an Optolong L-Extreme filter on a TS152 achromatic refractor mounted on a Losmandy G11. Integrations acquired using SGPro guided with PHD2 under Bortle 5 skies. Stacked with flat frames in DSS (the QHY8 does not tend to require darks). Processing in PS. The 32 bit DSS tiff file was cropped, rotated, a medium/medium Gradient Exterminator applied, adjusted in levels and converted to a 16 bit tiff file in 'Gamma and Exposure'. Five cycles of Levels / 'Curves' stretches were then applied to the 16 bit tiff file. Noel Carboni's Astronomy Actions for PS was then used ('Enhance DSO and Reduce Stars' / 'Local Contrast Enhancement' / 'Reduce Stars /). Final tweaks in PS with 'Colour Balance'. 'Hue and Saturation' and 'Brightness and Contrast'. I intend to add further data to the image when we next have a clear night to increase the SNR. Tiff and PNG versions below: IC1396_LF_Stack_21.10.21_5hrs.tif

I cannot remember the last time we had a clear night from dusk until dawn, but we seem to have plenty of nights with an hour or two of clear skies here and there, interspersed with clouds and showers. In those circumstances, this is the only way I can get some sleep! 😄

Many thanks. The seeing has indeed been very variable over the nights I have been gathering data for this. In the circumstances, the data for this image comprises 75% of the nearly 33 hours I took in total. Some of the data I left out was very poor indeed due to high cloud etc.

So I did! Now that I have increased my integrations, I am clearly going to have to look more carefully at what is caught by the camera 😀 Many thanks for pointing that out.

I am finding that one of the great advantages of instituting remote control / automation is that the observatory can open and close several times a night to catch periods of clear skies between the clouds, meaning I can increase significantly the time I can spend on a target over fewer nights. This is my image of the Bubble Nebula NGC 7635 comprising 24.3hrs of 300 sec subframes taken using a QHY8 OSC with an Optolong L-Extreme filter on a TS152 achromatic refractor mounted on a Losmandy G11. Integrations acquired using SGPro guided with PHD2 under Bortle 5 skies. Stacked with flat frames in DSS (the QHY8 does not tend to require darks). Processing in PS. The 32 bit DSS tiff file was cropped, rotated, a medium/medium Gradient Exterminator applied, adjusted in levels and converted to a 16 bit tiff file in 'Gamma and Exposure'. Four 'Curves' stretches were then applied to the 16 bit tiff file, followed each time by adjustment of the black point in 'Levels'. Noel Carboni's Astronomy Actions for PS was then used ('Enhance DSO and Reduce Stars' / 'Local Contrast Enhancement' / 'Reduce Stars /). 'Select and Mask' was used to sharpen selected edges. Final tweaks in PS with 'Colour Balance'. 'Hue and Saturation' and 'Brightness and Contrast'. Tiff and PNG versions below: Bubble_DSS_LFStack_24hrs_SGL.tif

Oops - I have just noticed that those graphs in the post reflect the pre-adjustment situation! I am not sure why multiple copies made it onto the end of the post as well as appearing at the beginning. Following the adjustments I made per the post, the amplitude of the 76 second oscillation was reduced from the nearly 8.3" shown in those graphs to an amplitude of a little over 0.3" as measured by the Frequency Analysis in PHD2. As a result, my RMS of 5.9" has been reduced so that I now regularly achieve an RMS of between 0.55-0.80" when guiding which, whilst not matching some higher end mounts, is much, much better than it was and well below the very best nights of seeing we get here. The G11 is not the same as the GM8 as far as I am aware - with both holes allowing movement. Part of the problem with the older G11, and the source of some of the PE pre-adjustment (the rest coming, I think, from inherent variations in the worm gear and mesh) is that so many of the components that go to make up the worm gear / block assembly in the G11 can move relative to each other. Normal tightness on the clutches also helps on the G11. I do like your elegant solution of the parallel and the brass tipped grub screws - I must remember that for the future 😀

I cannot immediately see a setting that permits the selective editing of footage 'live' as it were, but I have only just started to get to grips with the software.

I went back and forth on whether to buy one for quite some time given the price, but it certainly rewards the investment. The build quality feels very solid as well and it was easy to re-wire to enable the built in 12v dew heater to be controlled via the Dragonfly relay.

I have installed a Starlight Xpress Oculus ASC on my RRO to aid remote operation of the observatory by giving me a live view of the sky conditions when I am away from home. I tested it for the first time last night and was pretty pleased with the results. As has been observed elsewhere, the software supplied with the camera is somewhat 'classic' so I have chosen to use AllSkeye as the operating software. That software has a steeper learning curve but is in my view more powerful. This is the first test AVI video produced from last night's test images. The camera managed to pick up a couple of meteors notwithstanding the pervading cloud... TestMP4.mp4

No problem, glad it helped. This method has improved guiding on my mount significantly.

Final piece of remote equipment installed. The all sky camera let’s me confirm that, when the CloudWatcher says it is clear, it is ‘AP clear’ rather than ‘high wispy cirrus clear’. The images are also strangely relaxing to watch come in.

The final version of my image of the Cygnus Wall in NGC7000 comprising 24.6hrs of 300 sec subframes taken using a QHY8 OSC with an Optolong L-Extreme filter on a TS152 achromatic refractor mounted on a Losmandy G11. Integrations acquired using SGPro guided with PHD2 from Bortle 5 skies. Stacked with flat frames in DSS (the QHY8 does not ordinarily need darks). Processing in PS. The 32 bit DSS tiff file was cropped, rotated, a medium/medium Gradient Exterminator applied, adjusted in levels and converted to a 16 bit tiff file in 'Gamma and Exposure'. Three 'Curves' stretches were then applied to the 16 bit tiff file, followed each time by adjustment of the black point in 'Levels'. Noel Carboni's Astronomy Actions for PS was then used ('Enhance DSO and Reduce Stars' / 'Local Contrast Enhancement' / 'Reduce Stars / 'Fade Sharpen to Mostly Lighten'). 'Select and Mask' was used to sharpen selected edges. Final tweaks in PS with 'Colour Balance'. 'Hue and Saturation' and 'Brightness and Contrast'. Tiff and PNG versions below: NGC7000_DSS_LFStack_24.6hrs.tif

Trying, and failing, to emulate the Hubble 😂

Unexpected clear skies after heavy rain. Hoping to get to twenty four hours of integrations on the Cygnus Wall. Have a good night if you are looking up 🤩 c

Been there, done that 😄

No, not me @LondonNeil! I am an amateur with a particular interest in astrophotography. If your children get the astronomy bug it can be an interest for life. My parents bought me a 3" Tasco refractor when I was 8 years old or so and I am still fascinated by the hobby at the age of 51. I remember that the instruction booklet for the Tasco said that passion for the hobby of astronomy may wax and wain over the course of your life but it will never leave you completely. That has certainly been true for me. I put aside the hobby in my twenties and early thirties as life, career etc. took over, but found my way back to it in my late thirties. A change of job six years ago gave me more time to dedicate to it and I have just set up a remotely controlled observatory so that I can take the hobby of AP with me, as it were. The other great virtue of the hobby of astronomy is that it gives one a wonderfully sobering perspective on our place in the universe, as the great Carl Sagan articulated so beautifully in the Pale Blue Dot: Good luck with your search for a scope.

I get a lot of assistance from Trevor Jones on his Astro Backyard YouTube channel from Canada (AstroBackyard - YouTube), both with respect to acquisition and processing. I get a lot of amusement and some valuable tips, again on both acquisition and processing, from Dylan O'Donnell on his Star Stuff channel from Australia (Dylan O'Donnell - YouTube).